We need the City of Seattle to step up and help us preserve Montlake's history, charm, and community as we add urban density to our neighborhood.

The City of Seattle has proposed a plan to increase housing density across the city, with Montlake seeing significant density increase being proposed despite its small population size of about 5,000. View proposed changes here. While increasing housing is important and required as Seattle continues to grow as a city, we in Montlake believe it needs to be done thoughtfully and not at the expense of existing community culture and historical designation.

We also believe the city needs to make a commitment to spend on improving infrastructure in Montlake in coordination with increased zoning.

Montlake  primarily developed by John E. Boyer and Herbert Turner (also known as H.S. Turner) from 1903 through the early 1930s. The houses in Montlake are primarily single-family homes, mainly early 20th century American Craftsman bungalow, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival style. Also distinctive are the Old Seattle-style brick and wood frame homes of the early 20th century. We want to retain the historic, tree-centric charm of this community, and want the City of Seattle to take ownership of retaining the culture in our community as part of their plan to scale density in our neighborhood.

The Montlake Historic District is a part of Montlake, located northeast of the downtown district in Seattle, Washington that has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 15, 2015. For it's small size, Montlake is home to or abuts significant sites like the Gothic style Montlake Bridge built in 1925, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Many Olmstead designed places like the East Montlake Park, boulevards and parks are within the neighborhood boundary as well. Montlake is also home to the Seattle Yacht Club established in 1892, Montlake Elementary School completed in 1924 and Montlake Playfield with Tudor Revival buildings completed in 1935. The celebrated Olmstead park Washington Arboretum established in 1934 is the eastern boundary of the neighborhood and abuts backyards in the neighborhood. 

We are asking the City of Seattle to agree on design requirements for new buildings in Montlake, decreased height limits, and to have stricter requirements on tree preservation and re-planting for developers, and finally, mandate developers add underground parking to the already scarce neighborhood availability.

Environmental Impact Study:

We request the city perform an environmental impact study to determine how many additional car trips will be added to already small, congested streets in Montlake.

Environmental impact study of increased density and car trips on Arboretum ecosystems and surrounding watershed should also be conducted.

26th Ave east is a major bike route and will be even more popular with the opening of the 520 overpass. It’s a narrow street so no room for a bike lane. L2 and L3 development will increase car traffic significantly and will affect bike safety.

Infrastructure Requirements:

If Montlake sees zoning increases the City of Seattle should be required to address infrastructure changes we have been asking about for years!

1. Fix our sidewalks along 24th Ave E in front of Fuel. We need the city to finally commit to addressing these broken sidewalks so we can keep our community safe and accessible for all. There are creative ways to do this while preserving the tree canopy.
2. Fix potholes on local streets that are located to arterial streets like 24th and Boyer. 

Design Requirements

1. We are asking that Seattle require new buildings in Montlake to have brick, stone or wood siding on the street level, and would be required to be craftsman or Tudor design style on the street level to match the existing buildings.
2. Create stricter requirements on tree preservation and re-planting for developers.

Height Limits

We are asking that height limits be lowered to three stories instead of the five proposed in some areas, to match existing buildings. The amount of density in the plan doesn't match the level of commercial buildings that other neighborhoods have. There is one Italian restaurant, two coffee shops, one small market, a bicycle shop, an antique store and two small salons. This is hardly enough to warrant the proposed density.

Please, help Montlake scale gracefully! It is possibly to increase density and retain community culture and safety, but we need the city to acknowledge they won't simply increase zoning in Montlake without also putting measures in place that will keep our community and safe and our culture intact.

Ways to Take Action

• Attend/Speak at the City Council Public Hearing on February 5th at 5 P.M. either in person (most impactful) or virtually. The more people in attendance the better! If you attend in person, but do not speak, make a sign to show support for scaling back the zoning increase in Montlake.  If you attend on-line, you may want to find a way to show you are from Montlake and are opposed to the Neighborhood Center designation. When: 5:00pm (if speaking, arrive earlier to sign up)
  Where: Seattle City Hall Council Chambers, 600 4th Ave.
  Speaking: testimony will be anywhere from 1 minute to 3 minutes each.  We won't know until that day.
• Continue to share this petition.

• Contact our city council member with your concerns, Joy Hollingworth.